Tag: Islam

A debate among Christians about whether it’s ok to quote the Koran in trying to convert Muslims to Christianity.

Seemingly normal Pennsylvania woman turns into a radical jihadist after turning to Islam.

Christopher Hitchens detects extortion in an attempt to sue Danish newspapers on behalf of 95,000 descendants of Muhammad.

A profile of a medical student who turned into an Islamic militant.  “Frustrated strivers” with strong educational backgrounds are making Islamic militant groups even more potent enemies of the West.

An employment tribunal case being heard this week illustrated just how serious an issue religious bigotry is becoming in schools.  Nicholas Kafouris, who claims he was forced out of his job at Bigland Green Primary School in east London, was accused by one parent of believing that “Christianity is better than Islam”. She said he had made an “insulting” remark about her daughter wearing a headscarf in class.

A group of 30 Mauritanian Muslim leaders have issued a religious edict banning female genital mutilation in the West African country. Shaikh Ould Zain, head of the Forum of Islamic Thought, says the scholars believe cutting young girls’ genitals to limit their sexual activity as women is against religious beliefs. He said the leaders also agreed to preach against the practice at their mosques.

Authorities in Kyrgyzstan keep a tight grip on religion, fearing both Christian and Muslim fundamentalism. Bolot, a young evangelical preacher in Kyrgyzstan, says he already been arrested twice this year after setting up a new church. He says he is the victim of a new law on religion, which critics say severely restricts religious freedoms and is forcing some groups underground. Under the law, new religious groups have to have at least 200 members before they can register with the authorities and operate legally - previously the figure was 10.

Nancy Graham Holm defends murder over free speach.  “Publishing Kurt Westergaard’s cartoon was an aggressive act born of Denmark’s reluctance to respect religious belief”

The Daily Dish blog responds to the terrorist attack on Dutch cartoonist Kurt Westergaard with a collage of cartoons.

Security services knew three years ago that the Detroit bomber had “multiple communications” with Islamic extremists in Britain, it emerged this weekend. Counterterrorism officials said Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was “reaching out” to extremists who MI5 had under surveillance while he was studying at University College London. None of the information was passed to American officials, which will prompt questions about intelligence failures prior to the attack.

A Muslim MP has opened up divisions within the Islamic community by saying it is reasonable for Muslims to be singled out for extra airport security measures following the Detroit bomb attempt. Khalid Mahmood, the Labour MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, said it has become necessary to ‘profile’ passengers from certain racial and religious groups in order to weed out possible terror suspects.

Somali Muslim tried to kill the Danish cartoonist who drew cartoon of Mohammed, but was shot by the police in the attempt.  The Somali Islamist insurgent group Shabab applauded his efforts.

An intruder who was shot and wounded by police after breaking into the Denmark home of Muhammad cartoonist Kurt Westergaard has links to Islamic terrorists, according to Danish intelligence. The 28-year-old Somali man is connected to the radical Islamist al-Shabaab militia and al-Qaeda leaders in East Africa, claims Denmark’s PET intelligence service.

People in Wootton Bassett, the town famous for honouring dead British soldiers returning from Afghanistan, reacted defiantly on Saturday to news that a controversial Islamic group is to march through its streets. Islam4UK – which calls itself a “platform” for extremist movement al-Muhajiroun – plans to parade through the Wiltshire town in the coming weeks. The group’s website says the event is being held “not in memory of the occupying and merciless British military” but of the Muslims its says have been “murdered in the name of democracy and freedom”.

The man who tried to ignite an explosive device on the Delta flight to Detroit grew up privileged but later became a religious extremist.

Somalia has become a playground for an Islamist group known as al-Shabaab. It has banned bras, football, dancing and musical ringtones in the areas it controls. This weekend al-Shabaab decreed that men must grow beards and shave their moustaches. Its fighters have destroyed Sufi tombs and disinterred colonial-era Italian corpses. Its Sharia courts have ordered public floggings, the chopping off of hands and feet of thieves, the stoning to death of adulterers and beheadings of apostates and spies.

Even before it opened on the Edinburgh Festival fringe in 2007, there were calls for Jihad: The Musical to be boycotted by theatre-goers. Now Mandrake hears that the controversial production will open in London at the Jermyn Street Theatre early in the New Year. Although it features songs such as Building A Bomb Today and I Wanna Be Like Osama, Ben Scheuer, its composer and co-lyricist, insists that it is not in the worst possible taste.

The most likely scenario for Europe isn’t dhimmitude; it’s a long period of tension, punctuated by spasms of violence, that makes the Continent a more unpleasant place without fundamentally transforming it.

The way Islam has been practiced in most Muslim societies for centuries has left millions of Muslim women with battered bodies, minds and souls.

Amnesty International has condemned the stoning of a 13-year-old girl in southern Somalia. The human rights organization claims the teenager was stoned to death after her father informed the authorities that she had been gang-raped.